Light and Shadow

by David English Quotes

Production photo from Rashomon (1950)

“Rashomon would be my testing ground, the place where I could apply the ideas and wishes growing out of my silent-film research. To provide the symbolic background atmosphere, I decided to use the Akutagawa “In a Grove” story, which goes into the depths of the human heart as if with a surgeon’s scalpel, laying bare its dark complexities and bizarre twists. These strange impulses of the human heart would be expressed through the use of an elaborately fashioned play of light and shadow.”

— Akira Kurosawa, as quoted in Something Like an Autobiography

Inky Rain

by David English Trivia

Sometimes you have to heighten cinematic reality in order to make it seem more natural. That’s what director Akira Kurosawa had to do during the production of Rashomon (1950).

“In the downpour scenes showing the Rashomon Gate, Kurosawa found that the rain in the background simply wouldn’t show up against the light gray backdrop. To solve this problem, the crew ended up tinting the rain by pouring black ink into the tank of the rain machine.”

— Source: Internet Movie Database

Not the Same

by David English Quotes

“Interviewer (asking about Way Down East): Did you never use doubles in those days?

Lillian Gish: Never. I wasn’t sportsmanlike. And besides, we felt we moved in a certain way and that the audience could catch a double, they would walk differently, move differently and spoil the film. Or make them think something was wrong. And I think to this day they have that feeling when it’s not the same person.”

— Lillian Gish, interviewed for BBC-2 Late-Night Line Up (reprinted in Films & Filming, January 1970)

The Wind

by David English Trivia

Poster for The Wind (1928)

One of the last great films of the silent era, The Wind (1928) was a difficult production. Filmed on location in the Mojave Desert, the dramatic wind effects were created from the propellers of eight aircraft.

“During filming, temperatures reached 120 degrees Fahrenheit, making life miserable for both cast and crew. The intense heat caused the film stock to warp, and it had to be packed in ice to remain intact. Lillian Gish touched an outside door handle, and was so severely burned that a small part of her palm’s flesh was scalded off.

“The airplane propellers blowing hot air, sand, and smoke were so dangerous that crewmembers were forced to wear long-sleeved clothing (in 120 degree weather), eye goggles, bandanas around their necks, and grease paint on their faces whenever the machines were being run.”

— Source: Internet Movie Database

Betty Boop’s Voice

by David English Trivia
Mae Questel, the screen voice of Betty Boop

Was Helen Kane the inspiration for Betty Boop’s voice? Yes, though it couldn’t be proved in court.

“In April 1934, Helen Kane, whose popularity had waned since her debut in 1929, filed suit against Max Fleischer, Fleischer Studios and Paramount Pictures for $250,000. She claimed that Betty Boop had stolen her fans. Max Fleischer gave testimony that Betty Boop was not based on Helen Kane (which was untrue since she was one of the main inspirations for Betty). Five of the women who had been the voice for Betty appeared in court to deny that they had attempted to imitate Helen Kane’s voice. The judge watched and compared several of the cartoons with some of Helen Kane’s films. There was testimony that the ‘Boop Oop a Doop’ phrase came long before Helen Kane’s popularity, as one witness claimed to have heard the phrase uttered in an Edith Griffith song. And on May 2nd, Paramount Pictures was able to locate a film clip of another singer, Baby Esther, who used the same phrase in a song in 1928, hence Helen Kane lost her lawsuit.”

— Source: funtrivia.com

Against Logic

by David English Quotes

Production photo from Boudu Saved from Drowning (1932)

“One of the best scenes in Boudu Saved from Drowning, the suicide attempt from the Pont des Arts, was made in total defiance of the logic of the scene. The crowd of unpaid extras gathered on the bridge and the river banks was not there to witness a tragedy. They came to watch a movie being made, and they were in good humor. Far from asking them to feign the emotion which verisimilitude would demand, Renoir seems to have encouraged them in their light-hearted curiosity. . . .

“For Renoir, what is important is not the dramatic value of a scene. Drama, action — in the theatrical or novelistic sense of the terms — are for him only pretexts for the essential, and the essential is everywhere in what is visible, everywhere in the very substance of the cinema.”

— André Bazin, from his book Jean Renoir

Silent Footsteps

by David English Trivia

Double Indemnity (1944) was based on an actual murder case from 1927. Ruth Snyder took out a large insurance policy on her husband, and then killed him with the help of her boyfriend. The policy had an unusual double indemnity clause.

According to Wikipedia, “Judd Gray, the man on whom MacMurray’s Neff character was loosely based, said when he confessed, after killing Albert Snyder, ‘When I walked I listened for my step — no sound seemed to follow.’ Neff says, ‘I couldn’t hear my footsteps. It was the walk of a dead man.'”